News & Events from the English Department at Western Michigan University

Monday, November 26, 2007

Upcoming speaker: Dr. Joe Austin, from the History Dept. of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, will give a talk on Thurs., 11/29, entitled "Imagined Scenes Photographed in the Zines: Goths and Grafitti Writers." Dr. Austin's specialty is youth-culture studies, and his talk will focus on the role of 'zines in sustaining the long-standing international youth subcultures of Goth and grafitti-writing. His talk will begin at 7pm on Thursday, 11/29, on the 10th floor of Sprau Tower.

Faculty interested in attending a dinner for Dr. Austin at 5:30 0n Thursday at the Oakwood Bistro, should contact Ilana Nash at ilana_nash@yahoo.com.

Please join us on the 10th floor this Friday, November 30 at 7:30 for a reading by graduate students Gary McDowell (poetry), Jessi Phillips (fiction), and Christine Iaderosa (playwriting). Refreshments and jovial camaraderie will, of course, be provided. So, spread the word and invite your students.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

WMU's Haenicke Institute and the International Education Council are hosting informational luncheons at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 27 and Wednesday, Nov. 28 in the Bernhard Center for faculty interested in developing a study abroad program. Colleagues who have led summer study abroad programs will discuss their experiences and institute staff will outline the development process and available resources. Complimentary lunch for all faculty who rsvp. See the links below for more details.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

On December 5, from 7pm to 9pm in the Loosemore Auditorium on the downtown Grand Valley campus, Steve Vander Ark, a Grand Rapids native and author of the Harry Potter Lexicon (www.hp-lexicon.org), will be speaking about his website and the Harry Potter books. Roger Rapoport, the founder of RDR Books, will also be in attendance to speak about writing, editing, and publishing, as well as the publisher's legal battle with J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. over a print version of the Lexicon website.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Student senator Eric Dial has taken the lead on several recent WSA actions to increase student involvement in raising the profile of WMU to prospective students. Dial, WSA senator representing Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society, has drafted legislation to propose a student-led committee to create "100 Points of Pride," promotional material outlining WMU achievements, to be created by WMU students.

Dial, an English and history major, was also instrumental in drafting a successful WSA resolution to convey student concerns about aspects of the new WMU advertising campaign. He was one of four senators who drafted the language, which is critical of the negative connotations of several of the ads.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Reservations are now being accepted for the Whole Art Theatre’s full-production of Steve Feffer’s play AIN’T GOT NO HOME, a new play based on the story of Chicago’s legendary Chess Records. Performances of the play are December 6, 7 and 8 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) and 14 and 15 (Friday and Saturday) at 8 PM at the Whole Art’s 246 N. Kalamazoo Mall space. Tickets for the Friday and Saturday performances are $10.00.

Opening Night, Thursday, December 6, is a special Blues Bash Benefit for the Whole Art, featuring a performance of the play, followed by drinks and appetizers accompanied by a live blues band. Additionally, Steve will be digging deep into his Chess Records vault to DJ a Rock and Roll, Blues and Soul Dance Party. Tickets for this special evening are $50.00 with all proceeds going to the theatre.

For reservations please call 269-345-7529. Please reserve early as seating is very limited.

AIN’T GOT NO HOME, which received (along with the Whole Art as sponsoring theatre) the 2007 New Jewish Theatre Award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, tells the story of Leonard Chess, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who founded the Chess Records label on Chicago’s Southside in 1950, and his relationship with Muddy “Mississippi” Waters, the legendary bluesman from Rolling Fork, Mississippi, with who he made music history. Set between the years 1945 and 1969 the play traces the rise of Leonard Chess, and Chess Records, from out of a Southside liquor store; through his transformation of modern music with artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley; to his battle with his son Marshall over the label’s future in the turbulent 1960s. The play reveals the story of two immigrants, each man attempting to stake a claim in an America where they may not otherwise fit or be accepted, as they negotiate racial and religious perceptions in the 1950s and 1960s, and those that continue to shape the cultural present in our own communities.

The production is directed by Western Michigan University theatre professor Mark Liermann, and features Western Michigan University theatre professor Von Washington as Muddy “Mississippi” Waters.

Friday, November 16, 2007

AGES is happy to announce that the annual food drive to benefit the pantry at Kalamazoo's Loaves and Fishes has begun. We will be collecting non-perishable items through exam week. Collection bins are available (thanks Michelle!) in the 6th floor office. Please help us to make this year's drive successful.

Late Night Series at the Whole Art Studio 246 N. Kalamazoo MallNovember 16 - December 1

GA/WAYNE and the GREEN KNIGHT

by Michael P. Martin

Based on the anonymous epic poem, Martin has written a play telling of Sir Gawain's renowned life of virtue and his encounter with a seemingly otherworldly knight. This is the retelling of a classic, done in verse, juxtaposed with modern language, and extolling one of the greatest Arthurian legends. Featuring Dan Elmblad, Jeff Khaled, Christopher MacLean-Nagle, Sarah MacLean-Nagle, Trevor Maher, Joe Sanders, Richard J. Steward, Geoff VanGemert, and Kate Walker.

And as at every Late Night performance, complimentary Beaner's Gourmet Coffee and Sweetwater's Donuts are provided for the audience.

Performs November 16, 17, 30 and December 1 @ 11:00pm at the Whole Art Studio, 246 N. Kalamazoo Mall Tickets $5 each Groups are recommended to call ahead and reserve seats since space is limited!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Selection Committee for the "WMU Make A Difference Award" has selected Michelle Hruska as one of the recipients for this recognition. The award, which honors "contributions and dedication to WMU," will be presented to Michelle by President Dunn later this month. Please join me in congratulating her!

This Friday, November 16th, from 1-5pm, Sigma Tau Delta will host the 2nd Annual English Writing Conference at the Bernhard Center, rooms 210-213 and the faculty lounge on the 2nd floor. We have an exceptional line-up of student panels planned; I have attached our current schedule of presentations for your convenience. From original fiction, poetry, and playwriting to literary theory and pedagogical studies, these panels will certainly demonstrate the high level of creative and academic work our English students are producing at WMU.

We cordially invite you and your students to attend the English Writing Conference and support the efforts of these remarkable presenters. This conference will allow the university and entire community to see the physical embodiment of the English department. We hope that you will enhance our image and endorse our students' efforts with your presence.

The conference will begin at 1pm with a brief introduction and history of the EWC and ESS in the 2nd floor faculty lounge of the Bernhard Center. Food and water will also be available at that time. Panels will run every hour: 1:10-1:50, 2:00-2:50, 3:00-3:50, 4:00-4:50pm. Schedules for each room will be posted outside of their respective doors; conference programs, Sigma Tau Delta information, and upcoming conference and publication opportunities for students will also be available in the faculty lounge.

Thank you for your continued support of Sigma Tau Delta and the English Writing Conference. If you have any questions about our organization or the EWC, please do not hesitate to contact Jen Dempsey at jennifer.l.dempsey@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you on Friday at the English Writing Conference!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Marianne Swierenga, Managing Editor of New Issues Press, is the recipient of the "Dean's Staff and Faculty Appreciation Award" for "great work done over the past year [...] above and beyond the call of duty." Congratulations!Marianne received her B.A. from Hope College and her M.F.A. in poetry from Western Michigan University. She has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and her poems and essays have appeared in the Del Sol Review, Event, North American Review, and elsewhere.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

A new monograph by Christopher Nagle, Sexuality and the Culture of Sensibility in the British Romantic Era, has just been published by Palgrave, and is featured in the November (convention) issue of PMLA. For more information, including a description and pre-publication reviews, click here.

Stuart Dybek passes on the following announcement. He especially wants our graduate students know that he will do a Q&A at this event and try and answer any questions about writing at WMU or any questions they have."Stuart Dybek will be honored at a festive public reception, with special refreshments and live music, on Friday, November 16, from 6:30-8:00 pm, at the Kalamazoo Public Library, 315 S. Rose St. The libraries of Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and Davenport College, Portage District Library, Kalamazoo Public Library, and the Kalamazoo Gazette invite the entire community to celebrate Mr. Dybek’s amazing achievement in receiving both a 2007 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the 2007 Rea Award for the Short Story in the same week earlier this fall. KPL Director Ann Rohrbaugh will welcome guests to the reception shortly before 7:00 pm. Marsha Meyer, Portage District Library Adult Services librarian, and Western Michigan University representatives will also talk briefly. Mr. Dybek will then read from his work, answer questions from the audience, and sign his books. The Michigan News Agency will sell his books at the event. A native of Chicago, Dybek served Western Michigan University as a professor of English for 33 years, retiring from active teaching this past spring. According to a WMU News release, he 'remains closely connected to WMU as an adjunct faculty member, and he teaches in the university's renowned Prague Summer Program.' Dybek is now teaching at Northwestern University, as its first Distinguished Writer in Residence.-- Marsha Meyer, Portage District Library, 269-329-4542 ext. 710 mmeyer@portagelibrary.info."

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

The Kalamazoo Russian Festival, which annually attracts hundreds of people from throughout the Midwest to WMU, is Friday and Saturday, Nov. 9-10. The festival includes food, dance, music, crafts and a series ofpresentations by WMU faculty members. This event is cosponsored by the Department of English.http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/news/2007/11/001.html

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The Gwen Frostic Reading Series is pleased to present fiction writer Victor LaValle Wednesday, November 14. A short Q&A session with the author will begin at 3:30 that afternoon on the 10th floor of Sprau. LaValle's reading will be that evening at 8pm at the Little Theater.

Victor LaValle is author of Slapboxing with Jesus(Knopf, 1999), which won the PEN/Open Book Award, and The Ecstatic(Crown, 2002), which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award. In 2004 he received a Whiting Writers’ Award. He has been a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and currently teaches creative writing at Columbia University.

Please join us for these, the last events in the Frostic Series this semester, and do encourage your students to attend.

It has become one of the major films on the Spanish Civil war and one of the most important films in Ivens’s career. Like in many other films, Ivens finds a balance between the daily lives of people and their struggle to survive. The strong photography, mainly by John Ferno, combined with the powerful editing by Helen van Dongen and the commentary of Ernest Hemingway, make the film a masterpiece of documentary film making.

Tuesday, November 13, 6;00 p.m.La lengua de las mariposas(1999), 99 minutesSpanish with English subtitlesLa lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly) mourns the Spain destroyed by civil conflict by remembering it through the enchanted eyes of a small boy. Moncho is just old enough to begin attending public school. Moncho is blissfully unaware of the tense, political undercurrent that runs beneath his family and his country. He is content to while away his days in the idyllic countryside of Galicia, in northern Spain. There he divides his time between following his older brother’s exploits in a local big band and chasing butterflies with his compassionate schoolteacher and mentor Don Gregorio.

Wednesday, November 14, 6:00 p.m.Soldados de Salamina(2003), 119 minutesSpanish with English subtitlesWhen professor and writer Lola Sánchez is assigned to write a column in the newspaper about the Spanish Civil war, she researches and finds for the first time about the shooting of Rafael Sánchez Mazas. Lola has lost her passion for writing, and she becomes intrigued about Rafael, who was a writer and journalist that returned to Spain from the Italy of Mussolini and was very active in the Spanish fascist party Falange Española.

Award-winning author Stuart Dybek will be honored at a festive public reception, with special refreshments and live music, on Friday, November 16, from 6:30-8:00 pm, at the Kalamazoo Public Library, 315 S. Rose St. The libraries of Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and Davenport College, Portage District Library, Kalamazoo Public Library, and the Kalamazoo Gazette invite the entire community to celebrate Mr. Dybek’s amazing achievement in receiving both a 2007 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the 2007 Rea Award for the Short Story in the same week earlier this fall. KPL Director Ann Rohrbaugh will welcome guests to the reception shortly before 7:00 pm. Portage District Library and Western Michigan University representatives will also talk briefly. Mr. Dybek will then read from his work, answer questions from the audience, and sign his books. The Michigan News Agency will sell his books at the event. The MacArthur Foundation bestows the five-year grant of $500,000, paid in quarterly installments, “to individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.” The Foundation’s website proclaims Dybek to be a “short story writer paying tribute to the literature and iconography of the Old World while exploring the imaginations of contemporary American communities.” The day after receiving the MacArthur “genius grant,” Dybek was selected winner of the 2007 Rea Award for the Short Story with an accompanying $30,000 prize. “Sponsored by the Dungannon Foundation, The Rea Award for the Short Story was established in 1986 by the late Michael M. Rea to encourage short story writing by honoring a living American or Canadian writer who has made a ‘significant contribution to the short story form’.” A native of Chicago, Dybeck served Western Michigan University as a professor of English for 33 years, retiring from active teaching this past spring. According to a WMU News release, he “remains closely connected to WMU as an adjunct faculty member, and he teaches in the university's renowned Prague Summer Program.” Dybek is now teaching at Northwestern University, as its first Distinguished Writer in Residence.

Monday, November 5, 2007

At the 42nd annual meeting of the Western Literature Association, held October 17-20 in Tacoma, WA, Nicolas Witschi presented a paper entitled "'Off the Reservation with Forty Kinds of War Paint On': Dime Novel Journalism, the Outlaw Henry Starr, and Native American Autobiography."

Also at this conference, Nic and Dr. Karen Ramirezof the University of Colorado at Boulder became co-Presidents of the Association, and together they now undertake the organizing of the 2008 conference, to be held in Boulder, CO, Oct. 1-4. Featured speakers will include William Kittredge and Patty Limerick, the Association's Distinguished Achievement Awards recipients for 2008, as well as a terrific array of scholars and creative artists. Moreover, in a collaboration with The Center of the American West, the WLA conference will run concurrently with a community-based series entitled Western Literature Week that will feature prominent Colorado and western writers speaking publicly about their work. For more information about any of these events, check in regularly at the official Western Literature Association website, where you will also find the call for papers for the 2008 conference.

The Third Coast Reading Series, which showcases the work of graduate students in the MFA and PhD in creative writing programs, is pleased to announce its return with a reading this Friday, November 9. So, come join us at 7:30 on the 10th floor of Sprau. The line-up--sure to please--includes fiction writer James Miranda, non-fiction writer Kate Dernocoeur, and fiction writer Melinda Moustakis.

Beth Bradburn presented "Invisible Bodies, Transparent Minds: Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body" at the Theory of Mind and Literature Conference at PurdueUniversity November 1-4, and "The Emergent Novel in Paradise Lost" at the Conference on John Milton in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, October 25-27.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Steve Feffer's one act play "Little Airplanes of the Heart" will be presented in a full student directed and acted production in the York Arena Theatre in the Gilmore Complex Sunday and Monday November 11th and 12th at 5 Pm. The performances are free, general admission and open to the public. The play is presented as part of the WMU Theatre's Footlight Series and is directed by Leah Okraszewski, a theatre major who recently took part in the Prague Summer Program and has been a student in English Department playwriting workshops. "Little Airplanes of the Heart" tells the story of Uncle John's ill-fated flight in a homemade airplane from Cape Cod to Montana and the lasting effect it has on his family, especially his thirteen year old nephew Sam. The play has been published in Best American Short Plays 97-98 (Applause Books) and Plays From the Ensemble Studio Theatre 2000 (Faber and Faber).

Friday, November 2, 2007

Dean Tom Kent announced that Drs. Ellen Brinkley, Jana Schulman, Nic Witschi, and Joyce Walker were selected for the Dean's Staff and Faculty Appreciation Award. This award recognizes the great work done during an entire academic year by exemplary staff and faculty. Last week, Michelle Hruska received this award, which means that our department now boasts five recipients of this honor for AY 2006-2007. Congrats to all!